Mile End Park

On 4th January I took a visit to the widely acclaimed Mile End Park in east London. The main landscape consultants for the project, which completed for the millennium were Tibbalds Monroe.
One of the most interesting, and noticeable features of the park is a bright yellow bridge which carries the green space across the busy Mile End Road. This was my first sight of the park, towering over the traffic- certainly an imposing vision, but not overly pleasing architecturally.
Once inside the park there were some obvious issues of maintenance which proved disappointing.
In many areas the grass has been eroded away as people have followed their own lines of desire across the grass, rather than following the paths. As I continued my journey around the park I did myself have to question the use of the laid out paths- they did not often seem to be logically placed, and in some cases came to total dead ends. The entire network also seems to be geared for use by many more visitors than exist- particularly the segregated pedestrian and cycle paths.
To the north of the bridge lay the biggest disappointment the park had to offer, a mound with a stepped wooden side. The only way to the top by a spiral path was difficult to locate, and it was clear most peoples method of reaching summit was to go straight up over the grass- making a mess of it in the process. Once at the top there was simply nothing there. Unless, of course, you count a small mound of sorry looking content as 'something'. Although I find myself speaking negatively about the environment, there is a lot that the park does achieve very well. The sweeping curved paths do act as a catalyst to move people along this long thin space, and there are a very wide variety of different features within the park designed for a variety of user groups.
Back south of the bridge the landscape is slightly more conventional- and this is no bad thing. A park does need by it's nature to have areas of open space which people can enjoy. At the extreme south of the site is a large sports centre and associated playing courts. Near to this is also a centre aimed at the youth of the area, and a play area, with a slight difference to what I was expecting. It was designed for 11-17 year olds. This is not the usual age group that play equipment in parks is designed for, and I think this is one thing that Mile End Park has opened my eyes to, some of the equipment here looked really fun! It was well designed, well maintained, and attractive to the age group it was designed for. You can guess what came next- I had to try it!